What's New in Room 322?
A weekly review
May 24-27
Students have been working to practice arrays in a variety of ways this week. We looked at skylines of various cities throughout the world and noted that regardless of the architectural shape of the skyscrapers, many had windows that were in an array. Building on this knowledge, students designed and created their own buildings for 'Array City'. After making their designs, they completed a guide-sheet getting them to think about the addition/multiplication skills they represented. Students have also been playing a variety of hands on games and completing task card rotations and scoot games to round out their knowledge of arrays. Students have had hands-on practice making arrays with folder games and M&Ms as well (which yes they got to eat ;) ) Students have d
Word Work/Writing-
We have continued building on to our collection of poems by writing a variety this week. Students drafted, edited, published, and illustrated sensory poems based on their favorite seasons. Then we went for an observation walk on the nature trail to gather some al fresco inspiration for our poems. We read a selection of poems from Hailstones and Halibut Bones which is a poetry book all about colors. We talked about how colors can describe literal objects, emotions, or experiences. Students were grouped into colors and they brainstormed then wrote about that color. Students wrapped up the week by writing an I Am poem and continue to build up their poetry portfolios with published pieces.
Reading-
Students have been getting experience identifying common fairy tale elements by hearing a variety of stories (3 Little Pigs, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs). Students have written "pop quizzes" for each other to answer based on the 5 W question stems, created motivational posters based on the morals of the stories, argued point of view by examining fractured fairy tales, and more. We are also using small group time to work on reader theatre scripts (practicing our fluency) for several fairy tale stories. Groups are working on The Frog Prince, The Frog Prince Continued, The Three Little Pigs, and The Shepard and the Fairy. We have been getting lots of fluency practice and have designed backdrops for the stories as well. We will be collaborating with Mr. Dally's class to present our scripts next Monday. (Im going to attempt filming this to send to you all...fingers crossed!)
Science-
Students have begun learning about sound through a variety of activities. We engaged in some deep conversation about what we already knew about sound before going into our experiment stations. Students got to experiment with tuning forks, a mystery sound activity, and watching Blue Man group to get ideas about how sound travels. When we met back up, our conversations were great and they came to lots of conclusions about sound! Then, we learned about how we actually hear sound by watching a video on how the ear works and creating our own ear model. One important thing a lot of students said prior to our experiments was that sound is important for communicating and we explored that further with animal communication mid-week. We played animal sound bingo, learned the different types of animal communication styles (including sound) and created a "better" ear using what we learned.
Misc-
Students got to attend the We R Odell Chorus concert on Monday.
ENCORE Next Week
Tuesday: Guidance
Wednesday: NORO Day (Science EOGs)
Thursday: NORO Day (2nd Grade EOY Party)
Friday: Art
Reminder: Sound Parade
Reader's Theater
Upcoming Odell Events
- May 30-No school (holiday)
- June 2- EOY Second Grade Party / Sound Parade
- June 8-Last Day of School